Dust puddles, babies and progress

Baby Zsa is delightful.  As my adorable niece says at least 10 times a day, "Your baby is just so cute!!"  She is such a cutie herself and I completely agree :).  He loves to squirm, stretch, look at lights, nurse, poop, sleep, nurse, snuggle, poop, sleep...well, you get the idea.  He is pretty calm which is nice because even Papaya and Spooner feel accomplished at being able to calm him down.  Snuggling is particularly precious.

Today I was blessed to be able to sit in our beautiful back yard with Pipalicious reading to me while I snuggled a baby.  Can I say heaven?  Okay, so I don't have a kitchen or even a flushing toilet, but I have running water and, as of tonight, we can even say we cooked in our house!  It was in the addition in the back and it was on a griddle (grilled ham and cheese, yum!) but it was still there.  The rain outside was a perfect New York touch.

The day was once again a little crazy, but more with errands of buying food and supplies.  We were actually able to start swimming lessons, too, which the kids absolutely loved.  The Goob, Liliputian and Chugger-dude are in a class together and are excited to better learn strokes to make them more consistent swimmers.  They are confident in the water but just could use some official "let's work on our strokes" time.  Pipalicious and Hava had a great time and Papaya was good to go...or so she thinks.  Her attitude is, "Let me at the water. I can figure it out."  Scary.  It is wonderful that free lessons are offered in this community because of all the creeks around.

Oh, so clarification on why Utah "rivers" are "creeks" here: ever seen the Mississippi River?  After seeing that (and the many other huge rivers back here), would you call the Jordan River a "river"?  Me either :).  So I officially call our water behind our house a "creek" now, even if I have heard a conversation in which a gentleman shared his experience "rafting down a creek" with "3-4 foot high waves."

Jackie said they don't even have a name back here for those dinky little things that trickle down Utah mountains that I used to call a "creek."  I see why now :).

I simply love how wet it is back here.  The kids had a great time stomping through puddles and we are all enjoying a cooler evening after the showers.

Lek made his own puddles while working in the attic: it was so hot and dusty, he and his helpers were leaving puddles of sweat and were completely drenched in their own sweat as they maneuvered around in the attic.  Yuck!  Avot helped with electric wiring, kids, and laundry.  The Goob, Liliputian and Chugger-dude tried to look busy most of the day but actually got a good amount of work done in between :).  Pipalicious is perfect at keeping the tent cleaned and watching Baby Zsa in the baby bouncer while he sleeps, and the three little ones are just good at keeping people busy making sure they are safe.

We are still sleeping and showering at Zy and Jackie's and eating a few meals here and there, which is such a blessing.  It is so great to be so near their family after years of dreaming of it!  They just didn't know the price they would pay, mwa-ha-ha-ha!  I love seeing their smiles and have appreciated greatly their help being so familiar with the area. (Jackie is the only reason we are in swimming lessons right now!)

The people here have been so kind and welcoming.  As Liliputian put it, "Mom, I finally feel like we are somewhere where I have a place!"  She said that after one week.  Amazing.

Spooner learned a new word, "bug."  Only he says, ''but."  Yes, Q-dawg and the kids are having a lot of fun with that one.  It seems every one of our kids has at least one word others can play with :S.

Speaking of Q-dawg, he is work-master extraordinaire and it has been fun having him direct so much of this product.  Our heating and cooling is all installed, the bathroom is sheet rocked, and the electric work is so close.  I get to try and design the cabinets for our new kitchen after getting the dimensions of our appliances that are coming on Monday so we can get on the list for building those.  I have never felt so ignorant!...well, maybe trying to live in Hungary and speak Hungarian was a bit more challenging. I am grateful for this chance and blessing...I just don't want to blow it :).

The Blood Letting, Fall 2013

Here is a post from distant past that I just found...unpublished and authored by the one and only Q-dawg, it looks like...and sounds like.  You will see why I think it was his authorship later :).  See if you can find the clues!
 
Despite the best efforts of some members of the Biesinger Mob, everyone survived the most dangerous gathering of human beings to date.

...but just barely. Actually, we all had an incredible time climbing, eating, hiking, talking, playing, smoking, relaxing, wading, swimming, laughing and relieving ourselves.

We camped at Goblin Valley but were having so much fun we didn't think to take more pictures in the actual Valley of Goblins. Here is Lek and some others waiting for the survivors to return to base after a game of "Gotcha!"

Condoleezza (or whatever her Blog name is) found an excellent hiding place.

Shar   a and The Goob wander aimlessly, suffering from heat stroke.

Chugger-Dude and Lek salute the all-powerful leader while Avot and Liliputian offer up womanly charms.

Heading out on Little Wild Horse Canyon http://www.climb-utah.com/SRS/lwh.htm. See who is lugging Spooner around?

Yep, its Chugger-Dude. Spooner loves it.

Opposed to sitting on rocks, cacti and small reptiles, G-ma brought a chair to make the breaks more comfy (to the great relief of the small reptiles).

Ready to launch a saliva-soaked seed at the camera man, Chugger-Dude takes his life into his own hands. Papaya can't believe he is actually going to do it.

Pipalicious, your feet are on the wrong legs!!!!

The Goob tries out his new camo shirt. Can you find him?

Suck it in, Chugger-Dude!

Although you can't see him in this photo (he is behind a rock), The Goob scaled the cliff to the dark crevice- a feat few in our group dared to tackle-- or they valued life more.

Huh?

Bda-bda-bda...that's all folks!

Swimming (or not), working on the house, and summer heat!

The Goob needs more practice with diapers.  Somehow he managed to put on Spooner's backwards in his rush to get it on so he (the Goob) could go back to playing in the stream behind our house.  I know just where we can find some :). His wife will thank me some day.

It got hot!  Okay, so it is just in the 80's but the humidity is something else!  We have all been sweating up a storm this evening.  The three little girls went to bed with wet paper towels on their faces (sorry, Misty...I did think of you!).  Avot was laying on top of her bedding, all ready to go to bed in her long sleeve and pants flannel  jammies.  Yah.  No wonder she was hot. I asked her if she had any other jammies and when the answer was "no," I suggested t-shirt and shorts? She does seem happier now.

Chugger-dude had his first voluntary cold shower tonight to try and cool down his core temperature and had me walk him through it step by step :).  I thought it was simple--a no brainer!--but apparently he didn't want to "do it for the first time alone."  I guess cold water can be scary. 

Speaking of scary, it took Spooner's three biggest sisters to change his diaper for the swimming lessons-that-never-were today.  Three.  A new record for our family and one we are hoping to remember for his wedding breakfast in 20 years or so.  It was quite a moment.  He kicking and screaming wildly in the front seat of the van, Liliputian, Avot and Pipalicious all doing all they could to get him clean, contained and re-diapered while I relaxed in a camp chair next to them and fed Baby Zsa.  I had a tough job, but one only I could do :).

With the swimming lessons cancelled, I tried to salvage the situation with ice cream cones and time in our creek behind our house.  As I said to the kids, "What doesn't kill you makes you...fatter,"  at least in this case :).  They thought that was funny.

We worked on the house today and made a lot of progress. While the bathroom is not done yet, every step closer on the bathroom seems to bring progress to all the rooms in the house.  The bathroom has been sheet rock--ed? and the plumbing and electricity is all good to go.  They even started mounting the backing for the tiles in the bath/shower!  Woohoo!  While the brainy men-folk worked on bathroom specifics, Avot and I sang together as we hung insulation.  This insulation is thick!  We are going to be warm this winter :).  I think Q-dawg is remembering our house in Kaysville with its paper thin walls when he encourages me to fill up every little hole with insulation. I am with him on this one. :)  I also cleaned up the storage area out back, finished straightening up the basement the other day, and have organized things for when we will hopefully "move in" soon.  We will probably use one bedroom upstairs and then the tent in the backyard (which we also set up today).  It has been a busy day!

Spooner had a great time riding his little bike all around the backyard while the kids played in the stream and with keeping the fire going.  We are burning a lot of our extra boards from our house and the kids love it, vying for their chance to be in charge of "keeping the fire going."  They also are enjoying climbing the trees in our backyard.  I love our backyard and will hopefully post some pictures soon.

Lek is our most recent victim to the sickness that has been going around, but he is hoping to be able to be up and working again soon.  We have had some great help from a "local-ish" handyman as well as some great missionaries.    The kids have had great chances to work with some great mentors during this project so far.  For instance, Avot was able to do electricity work last Saturday with her Uncle Zy, who has also invested huge amounts of hours into our house.  I love seeing Q-dawg's face light up as he talks about different stages and tasks he has just completed. It is fun to feel on the "reconstructing" end of things and not the destroying end.

We do have fun destroying things, though.  For instance, tonight we enjoyed the tag-end of Uncle Zy's birthday celebration with an indestructable pinata and rootbeer floats of various flavors.  The kids all took turns youngest to oldest whacking the pinata, unblindfolded, three times, and still they went through the line four times.  Finally, the little girls softened their big brother's heart enough for Lek to come and finish the job.  The Goob was really close his last time and Lek said that if the Goob couldn't do it, he is not sure he could. 

It was fanastic.

First swing, the bag quivered.

Second, pieces flew.

Third, the bag exploded.

Great climax to four rounds of aggressive whacking and anticipation.

I am all over using home-made pinatas from now on!  Four brown grocery sacks, a little duct tape and some rope and we are good!  The kids went frantically sliding about on the wood floor trying to accumulate the most massive piles they could. Spooner, after absolutely loving his turns to whack and all the excitement, went over hurriedly to join the fun...and came back excitedly with two pieces of garbage clasped tightly in his chubby little fingers, completely thrilled to have them.  Avot shared her's with him, and then he really got the picture.  Cute kid.

Baby Zsa apparently things my voice means "nurse, nurse and nurse some more," but has fortunately given me a few breaks today so I could work on the house :). I confess I thoroughly enjoy my time with him and the chance it gives me to chat more with some of the younger kids, but it has also felt nice to help on the house and work with the older kids and Q-dawg.  We have had some interesting conversations (the Goob is there...need I say more :)?) and lots of laughs.

Today we sucked up a lot of spider webs (and probably some spiders...sorry, Jackie, I will save some later for you to visit) and straightened up a lot.  Q-dawg had fun doing creative dry-walling and playing with wires.  So much to do!  We will live in it yet :).